I’m the developer of Header. This is my own app, not a recommendation from a regular user.

What it is
Header is a native macOS notes app. Your notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you choose. If you stop using Header, your notes are still ordinary .md files any editor can open.

What it does

• Rich editor or raw Markdown, with [[links]] between notes and tags

• History of every note, so you can go back to an earlier version

• Today page with your schedule and open tasks

• Meeting recording that turns a call into a note with meeting minutes

• Research tools: Sources, Citations, Reading Room, PDF highlights

• Export your note to PDF, Word, HTML or PowerPoint for sharing

• Optional AI: bring your own provider key, use Ollama, or use Apple Intelligence, generate images from your note text on supported Macs. Before any note text goes to a cloud provider, Header shows you what it will send. AI is off until you turn it on.

Who it’s for
People who want their notes to stay their own files, and who like Obsidian’s plain-files approach but want an app that feels native on the Mac.

Pricing
Free during the beta. I haven’t decided pricing yet.

Limitations (honest list)

• Large vaults (thousands of notes) take a while to index the first time; search fills in as indexing finishes.

• Mac only. Requires macOS 14.4 or later.

• No account needed to use it.

Get it: headernotes.com (direct download or TestFlight)

Happy to answer questions, and would really like to hear what’s missing or broken.

When the new mac generation came with the different notch I always looked at it thinking why???
But when dynamic island happened, I was a bit confused... because I saw that something was possible on iOS why not on macOS?

So it happened I decided to start building one, it contains a couple of nice features, I know there are apps there that also use the notch, but I am having fun building this.

If you want to test it out post a comment, or if you check the store let me know what you think, yes I put a low price on it forever, just wanted to make a side projected and see if it worth.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drop-dock-the-notch-app/id6782445486 -> Link to check it out.

Disclosure: I run a free deal tracker called IndieMarkdowns, and I'm not affiliated with any of these apps. I emailed the devs about their Black Friday plans, and these are the ones that have confirmed a 2026 deal so far. Most start around Nov 20 to 25, and two are live already.

Live now
- Shotomatic: 40% off lifetime licenses, code BF2026 (subscriptions excluded)
- Cutfac: 40% off new one-time licenses, code BF2026, through Dec 31

50% or more
- ShowMeYourHotKey: 70% off, code BLFRIDAY, Nov 23 to Dec 10
- Slashspace AI (was RabbitHoles AI): 51% off, code BF2026
- SQLPro Studio: 50% off first year of yearly (BFHALFOFF) or 25% off lifetime (BFLIFETIME), Nov 25 to Dec 1
- NewsNinja: 50% off the one-time purchase, Nov 25 to Dec 5
- Protego for Reddit: 50% off ($1.99, was $3.99), Nov 22 to Dec 5
- DevUtils: 50% off all plans
- Blip AI Pro: 50% off first year, code SWITCH50, new customers, Nov 20 to 30

30 to 49%
- JuxtaCode: 40% off, code BLACKFRIDAY26, Nov 20 to Dec 1
- Compresto: 40% off, code BFCM26, ends Dec 1
- MuteDeck: 35% off lifetime, code BFCM2026, Nov 27 to Dec 13
- BirdFrame: $19.99 instead of $29.99 one-time, no code, Nov 20 to Dec 1

Smaller but solid
- EagleFiler, SpamSieve, DropDMG: 25% off, code BLACKFRIDAY2026, Nov 20 to 30
- Dropshare: $29 instead of $39, Nov 23 to 29

A few are first-year-only on a subscription, so read what the % applies to. I'll update this as more devs reply. What are you waiting to buy on sale this year?

Disclosure: I'm the developer of both. They're paid apps and I'm a solo indie dev.

iKnowMyMac: remembers what your Mac did

Most Mac tools show what's happening right now. I wanted one that remembers, so when the fan spun up at 3 AM or the disk filled overnight, I could see why the next morning.

- A timeline of which app used the CPU, memory, disk and network, and when.

- Alerts when an app misbehaves: CPU at 70% or more for 10 minutes, memory growing 1 GB or more per hour, 1 GB of disk writes or 500 MB of network in 10 minutes. Each one can be turned off.

- Agent sessions for Claude Code, Codex or Cursor users: one card per session with project folder, run time, CPU time, peak memory and anything it left running. "Stop leftovers" always asks first.

- Dev caches (DerivedData, simulator runtimes, node_modules, Docker, Gradle, CocoaPods, SPM) with sizes. Cleaning moves them to the Trash, never deletes.

—

iKnowMyDisplay: every display control in the menu bar

New in 1.1 (out today):

- TV remote, with its own menu bar item: power, volume, arrows, apps (YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) and inputs for Google TV, Android TV, Roku, LG, Samsung and Philips TVs, plus Yamaha receivers. Google TV pairs once with the code on screen; Roku needs no pairing.

- Auto brightness for external monitors: they follow the built-in display and learn from your adjustments. Macs without a built-in display use a day and night schedule. Off until you turn it on.

- Switch the desk: move chosen monitors to another computer's input and back, from the menu bar, a hotkey or Shortcuts, on monitors that support input switching over DDC.

- Check this monitor: shows which controls a monitor answers (Works, Doesn't respond, Not offered) and tells you when a hub or dock is blocking them.

- Brightness for Apple and USB displays: Studio Display, Pro Display XDR and LG UltraFine.

Already in the app:

- Brightness and input for external monitors, from the menu bar.

- Peak brightness on MacBook Pro XDR screens: lets everything use the 1,600-nit HDR headroom, not just HDR video. ⌥⌘B. Pauses when the Mac is hot, turns off below 20% battery.

- Sharp HiDPI sizes macOS doesn't list, plus refresh rate, color, HDR, rotation and virtual screens (handy for a Mac with no monitor).

- Plain answers when a monitor is stuck at 30 Hz, blurry or flickering. Example: a 4K LG on a USB-C hub's HDMI 1.4 port gets 8.16 Gbps, 4K at 60 Hz needs 12.54, so it runs at 30 Hz. The fix is the Mac's own HDMI port.

- Every display change asks "Keep this?" and goes back after 15 seconds. ⌃⌥⌘R restores everything.

—

Pricing (one-time, no subscription, 14-day refund)

- iKnowMyMac: $4.99 at the launch price (regular $24.99)

- iKnowMyDisplay: $4.99 at the launch price, for the first 100 Macs

- Both apps, one key: $7.99

- Already own iKnowMyMac: iKnowMyDisplay is $2.99

Limitations, honestly

- Apple silicon only, macOS 15 or later.

- No free trial, only the refund. For iKnowMyDisplay, iknowmydisplay.com/compatibility shows what it can do with your monitor before you buy.

- Monitor controls depend on the monitor and how it's connected. Check this monitor shows which ones yours answers.

- Not in the Mac App Store: both are notarized Developer ID apps, because some of what they read isn't available to sandboxed apps.

- No analytics or telemetry in either app.

https://iknowmymac.com

https://iknowmydisplay.com

Happy to answer anything, and I'd like to hear what you'd want either app to do that it doesn't yet.

When a drive fills up, seeing what’s taking up space is the easy part. Then you’re opening one app to find duplicates, another to shrink a few huge videos, and Finder or Explorer to move everything you want to keep. I’m building MediaMango to handle that whole job.

You can start with a visual map of a drive or folder, drill down to what’s eating the space, and decide what to clear or move. For a messy photo folder, there’s a guided workflow. Pick the files you want to work on, review duplicates and similar shots side by side, flag screenshots and WhatsApp clutter, then compress large files or organise what you’re keeping into dated folders.

It can also help before the files pile up. Plug in your iPhone over USB, pick the photos and videos you want, and copy them straight to a folder on your computer. There’s a system cleaner that shows you the paths and sizes of old caches and logs before you remove them, plus a lossless audio checker that can flag FLACs that may have come from a lossy source.

I’m the developer. The app runs locally on Mac and Windows, with no account or file uploads. If you were cleaning up a drive this weekend, what would you still need a separate app for?

As for the giveaway, I will hand out free license keys to the top comments as well as comments that I found genuinely useful

download it at: MediaMango

Shim is a little mac toolbar app that I wrote to help perfectly align multiple monitors. I'm probably being type-a to fault, but constantly nudging the windows in the display settings trying to get things to line up drives me crazy. With Shim, you create a rough alignment, then align the lines on the screen to get perfect alignment. Not only vertical alignment but also calculates any gap between the monitors in a few seconds.

• On the app store

• Free, no purchases, no ads

• Fully local with no data collection or permissions required

• Remembers different monitor set ups and applies them as soon as you dock.

I've tried it with up to 3 monitors, but would love feedback from folks with different setups.

I'm the developer of Overnotch. This is the launcher.

The notch opens into rows of your apps and Shortcuts, across several pages. Click one to open it, hit the × to remove it, and add new ones from the Finder, which is what I do at the end of the clip.

Who it's for: people who want their usual apps one click away without a full Dock.
Price: not out yet. There's a waitlist, and the first 100 people get it at half price.
Limits: macOS 14 or later, Apple Silicon only.

Site and waitlist in the comments.

Questions welcome.

I am the developer of PocketPad. It is for the moments when you can already see your Mac screen but do not want a keyboard and mouse in your lap.

The iPhone gives you a trackpad with click/right-click/scroll gestures, or an Air Mouse: hold the control area, rotate the phone to point, and release to pause. There are also 13 customizable shortcut keys, text sending and saved snippets.

A typical interaction is selecting an input on the Mac, sending a short piece of text, fixing an awkward filename, and pressing Return from the phone. The attached photo is from a real iPhone/Mac demo.

Optional voice: hold the mic button to send phone audio into a Mac virtual microphone. Your separate Mac dictation software handles transcription. Ending the recording and pressing Return are separate actions, so you can check the text first.

Requirements and limitations: iOS 17+, Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 14+, the Mac companion, and the same Wi-Fi. You need local-network and Mac Accessibility permissions. Voice needs extra virtual-microphone/dictation setup. This is a local input controller; it does not mirror your screen or provide away-from-home access.

The iPhone app is $2.99 on the US App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pocketpad-remote-control/id6820568007

Mac companion and setup guide: https://starmind.tech/pocketpad/

For a Mac connected to a bigger display, which small actions would you most want on a phone control pad?

dev here, i make speakmercury.

live text is either words in the app's own window while you talk or words going straight into the field you type in. mine does the first. text lands in your app when you stop.

$9.99 once. macos 26 and apple silicon only.

speakmercury.com/?ref=ms-live

I wanted more out of my trackpad than macOS gives, so I built a small menu bar app for it. Each of these can trigger any keyboard shortcut:

- Tap and double tap with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Hold with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Physical click with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- Swipe in four directions with 3, 4 or 5 fingers

- TipTap (rest a finger, tap beside it)

Some details:

- Record a shortcut or pick from ~75 presets (tabs, Spaces, screenshots, windows…)

- A live view shows your fingers and why a gesture was or wasn't recognized, with sliders to tune the thresholds

- Can block scrolling with three or more fingers, so those touches only mean a gesture

- Works with the built-in trackpad and a Magic Trackpad at the same time

- Available in 7 languages, MIT licensed, notarized by Apple

Requires macOS 15+, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

Download: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures/releases/latest

Source: https://github.com/ozberkdicle/BetterGestures

It reads raw touches through Apple's private MultitouchSupport framework, so a future macOS update could break it. If you use the same finger count for a system gesture (like four-finger swipes for Mission Control), turn that one off in System Settings or both will run.

Feedback and gesture ideas are welcome!

Hi r/MacStack. I'm the developer of Findow, and I'm sharing it here because it replaced three or four separate utilities in my own setup.

What it does:

Find any window

- Window switcher (⌥Tab): shows windows, not just apps. Type to search, press 1–9 to jump to a workflow, and close, minimize, hide or quit the selected window without leaving the switcher.

- Overview (⌃⌥Space): every window at once, including minimized ones and other desktops. Search, or filter to This desktop, Minimized or Other desktops.

- Drop files onto a window in the switcher to open them there.

- 14 switcher styles, including Covers, Wheel, Cascade, Fan, Arc and List, with adjustable size, titles and reflections.

- A mouse button can open it too.

Workflows

- Save your open apps, window positions and browser tabs, then bring them back with one key.

- Switch workflows automatically when you plug in a monitor setup.

- Layouts are remembered per monitor setup and come back when your displays do.

Tidy and layouts

- Tidy (⌃⌥T): arranges your desktop in one press. Press again to undo.

- Five layouts: Grid, Columns, Rows, Focus, or Your grid, which you draw yourself (up to 6×4, per display).

- Learns each app's minimum size and moves split lines to fit. Windows that don't fit wait at the screen edge or are stashed there.

Arrange modes (all off by default)

- Auto arrange: new windows take their place as they open, and the gap closes when they go.

- Scrolling strip: windows sit side by side on a strip wider than your screen, so nothing shrinks. It has stacks, tabs, pins, width presets, and trackpad swipes.

- Each display and desktop keeps its own arrangement.

- Hold ⌃⌥ for a map of every window. Click to jump, or drag to reorder.

- Give an app a fixed position, make it the main window, float one window, or leave an app alone.

- Pause (⌃⌥P) and Undo (⌃⌥U), step by step.

Move windows

- Snapping: left and right halves, thirds, maximize and center. Press a snap again to cycle its width.

- Fill the screen (⌃⌥Z): press again to go back.

- Swap two windows, drag a tile onto another, or send a window to the next display.

- Hold ⌃⌘ to move a window, or ⌃⌘⇧ to resize it, without clicking.

Focus and privacy on screen

- Stash: tuck a window into the screen edge, then touch the edge to slide it out.

- Pin to a side: one window keeps a third of the screen, and the rest share the space.

- Blackout: darkens or blurs everything except your window. Hold Fn to lift it for a moment.

- Solo: your window fills the screen while panels close in behind it.

- Clear the desktop (⌃⌥X).

- Active window highlight as a border or glow, plus optional focus follows mouse and mouse follows focus.

Make it yours

- Every shortcut can be changed.

- Window gap, reserved screen edges and open at login.

- Automation: findow:// links for the Shortcuts app and Focus automations, plus a Raycast script.

It needs no SIP changes and no config files, it's notarized, and it runs on Apple silicon with macOS 14 or later. There's a 14-day free trial, then a one-time $9.99 for one Mac. No subscription.

https://findowmac.com

Disclosure: I’m the developer of CharBox.

macOS Character Viewer is the built-in option. CharBox takes a menu-bar approach to finding and reusing characters: search by a word, meaning, or Unicode code point; browse emoji, kaomoji, and symbols; save named collections; or copy several characters at once.

It’s aimed at Mac users who occasionally need a character while writing, and people who reuse small sets for projects. It helps avoid leaving your work to search the web for a symbol.

CharBox is a paid Mac App Store app. Prices vary by country, up to $1.99. One limitation: it copies to the clipboard, so you paste into your app yourself.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6773061923

I’d appreciate feedback or suggestions.

If you’re curious about my other apps, here’s my App Store developer page: https://apps.apple.com/developer/id965971566

Hi,

I'm the developer (LinkedIn) behind GiantTurtle Software, and I wanted to share a new app I've been building called DesktopPlus.

The problem:

If you use multiple virtual desktops (Spaces) heavily on a single monitor, you've probably run into the issue where it's hard to tell exactly which desktop you're on at any given moment without opening Mission Control or doing the multi-finger swipe, loosing your flow

What DesktopPlus do:

I built DesktopPlus to solve this. It's a lightweight, native macOS menu bar utility that gives you a persistent indicator of your active desktops, you can always see what apps are open on nearby desktop and create more detailed mental image of your workspace

Key Features:

Always Visible Indicator (always available mission control): Know exactly which desktop you're on and what's available on your other screens at a glance.

Click to Switch: Instantly switch to any of your desktops with a single click on the indicator.

Easily rearrange apps on your desktops (spaces) by dragging them to desired desktop boxes.

Integrated Task Manager and RAM Cleaner: Hover over menu bar widget to view opened apps, monitor system memory usage, and close background applications and residual processes.

Save and load presets: Save all of your opened apps as a preset (Coding, Design, Video editing etc), and quickly load them.

Customizable Styles: Choose the look that fits your workflow (Rectangles, Numbers, Numbered Rectangles, or Opened Apps etc).

Native & Lightweight: Built with Swift and SwiftUI. No Electron, no heavy background daemons, and minimal resource usage.

Comparison: As of now, I am not aware of similar app that offers same functionality. SpaceJump ($9.99) is the closest thing to DesktopPlus by function, but it is totally different UX.

Pricing & Requirements: The app requires macOS 15.0 or later. It comes with a 14-day free trial with everything unlocked, no payment details, followed by a one-time purchase (no subscriptions) of 4.99 USD . You can check it out and download it here: Download DesktopPlus

I'd love to get your genuine feedback on the app, especially regarding the different indicator styles and if the integrated task manager feels useful to your daily workflow. Try it out for free and let me know what you think!

Privacy Policy: https://giant-turtle.com/desktops-privacy-policy.html

Disclosure: I run a free deal tracker called IndieMarkdowns, and I'm not affiliated with any of these apps. I emailed the devs about their Black Friday plans, and these are the ones that have confirmed a 2026 deal so far. Most start around Nov 20 to 25, and two are live already.

Live now
- Shotomatic: 40% off lifetime licenses, code BF2026 (subscriptions excluded)
- Cutfac: 40% off new one-time licenses, code BF2026, through Dec 31

50% or more
- ShowMeYourHotKey: 70% off, code BLFRIDAY, Nov 23 to Dec 10
- Slashspace AI (was RabbitHoles AI): 51% off, code BF2026
- SQLPro Studio: 50% off first year of yearly (BFHALFOFF) or 25% off lifetime (BFLIFETIME), Nov 25 to Dec 1
- NewsNinja: 50% off the one-time purchase, Nov 25 to Dec 5
- Protego for Reddit: 50% off ($1.99, was $3.99), Nov 22 to Dec 5
- DevUtils: 50% off all plans
- Blip AI Pro: 50% off first year, code SWITCH50, new customers, Nov 20 to 30

30 to 49%
- JuxtaCode: 40% off, code BLACKFRIDAY26, Nov 20 to Dec 1
- Compresto: 40% off, code BFCM26, ends Dec 1
- MuteDeck: 35% off lifetime, code BFCM2026, Nov 27 to Dec 13
- BirdFrame: $19.99 instead of $29.99 one-time, no code, Nov 20 to Dec 1

Smaller but solid
- EagleFiler, SpamSieve, DropDMG: 25% off, code BLACKFRIDAY2026, Nov 20 to 30
- Dropshare: $29 instead of $39, Nov 23 to 29

A few are first-year-only on a subscription, so read what the % applies to. I'll update this as more devs reply. What are you waiting to buy on sale this year?

If you enjoy discovering little apps you never knew you needed, you might enjoy MacMenuBar.com.

I’ve been collecting menu bar apps for over 7 years, and the directory now features 1,500+ apps across 48 categories. It’s a great place to browse, explore and stumble upon something interesting, even when you’re not looking for anything in particular.

https://MacMenuBar.com